ubuntu wifi disconnects every few minutes

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ubuntu wifi disconnects every few minutes

httpwebwitch

4:43 pm on Apr 28, 2010 (gmt 0)

I'm new to 'nix.
running ubuntu on my thinkpad R51. Most things are working just fine.

but I find it frustrating that my wifi connection disconnects every few minutes. Sometimes I think it's a sleep thing, because it always disconnects when I walk away for a few minutes. but then sometimes it'll disconnect while I'm typing.

other forums haven't been much help. One suggested a cron job every minute that reconnects to the network. that seems silly to me, there must be a reason this is happening and I'd like to fix it, not apply a cron-scheduled bandaid

any ideas?

chasehx

4:51 pm on Apr 28, 2010 (gmt 0)

Ubuntu on my little netbook does this too. Although after going down to 32 bit the problem is almost non existent. I even build new wifi drivers from scratch for my card and still got no where. My only recommendation is go 32 bit on the laptop if you haven't already, small systems don't gain much benefit anyway from the 64 bit architecture. Unfortunately I still have this problem a few times a week, but not nearly as often as I did, which was multiple times a day. One handy trick I found is killing the X server for some reason makes the connection come back up, even if ifconfig, iwconfig, and dhclient are all failing at it. Alt+PrtScr+k will kill it...

lammert

3:23 pm on Apr 29, 2010 (gmt 0)

Is there any information written in one of the log files in /var/log at the moment the disconnect happens? That might give a clue about the cause of the disconnect.

httpwebwitch

5:25 pm on Apr 29, 2010 (gmt 0)

@lammert,

var/log/syslog contains these lines, repeated over and over:

Apr 29 08:32:49 Ludo wpa_supplicant[860]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Apr 29 08:32:49 Ludo wpa_supplicant[860]: Trying to associate with **:**:**:**:**:** (SSID='***********' freq=2437 MHz)
Apr 29 08:32:49 Ludo wpa_supplicant[860]: Association request to the driver failed
Apr 29 08:32:49 Ludo NetworkManager: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: disconnected -> associating
Apr 29 08:32:50 Ludo wpa_supplicant[860]: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys
Apr 29 08:32:50 Ludo NetworkManager: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: associating -> disconnected

*** = bleeped out my network name and what looks like a MAC address

graeme_p

11:14 am on Apr 30, 2010 (gmt 0)

It could be this: [bugs.launchpad.net ]

There is a possible fix suggested in the last comment. You can test it by seeing if:

sudo sysctl -w dev.wifi0.intmit=0

makes a difference, and then change the config file if it does.

It could also be a network manager problem. You could try Wicd, but it does not support mobile (i.e. cellular), two interfaces at once (i.e. ethernet and wifi both connected at the same time) and a few other things (including, I think, dialup and USB modem): [wicd.sourceforge.net ]

Please note, installing Wicd will remove Network manager.